While it may seem like CES was just a few weeks ago, it is already time for Mobile World Congress. From February 24 to 27, the mobile computing world converges on Barcelona, Spain and shows off at least some of their plans for the coming year.

MWC is a lot like CES, but since this event is focused on mobile devices instead of TVs and refrigerators, manufacturers are actually willing to show off new smartphones at the show. This year promises to see smartphone launches from many major OEMs, with Samsung, Sony, LG, and Nokia already dropping hints that they'll have new devices present. Below is what we're expecting from all the major players, but we'll also give a brief overview of some of the more believable rumors that have sprung up around these devices. (Brace yourself—we even have a few blurrycam photos.)

Samsung

We'll start with the flagship phone from Samsung, the Galaxy S5. Samsung has strongly hinted that the Galaxy S5 will debut at MWC. Samsung is calling its press event "Unpacked 5," and it put superscript fives all over its teaser image for the event.

So while we can be pretty sure the Galaxy S5 is coming to MWC, what do we actually know about it? Despite being the biggest device at the show, the S5 is also the biggest mystery—there hasn't been a single leaked photo. We do have the teaser image above, which is a huge departure from the standard TouchWiz design language. It suggests that Samsung will be revamping its aging UI skin with a flatter design and new icons for the Galaxy S5. Re/code claims that Google made Samsung agree to dial back its customizations of Android, but that deal probably happened far too late into the Galaxy S5 development cycle to have any impact on that device.

The other big chunk of information we have is from Lee Young Hee, the executive VP of Samsung's mobile business, who vaguely described the Galaxy S5 in an interview with Bloomberg.

When we moved to S4 from S3, it’s partly true that consumers couldn’t really feel much difference between the two products from the physical perspective, so the market reaction wasn’t as big. For the S5, we will go back to the basics. Mostly, it’s about the display and the feel of the cover.

While the S 4 design was slightly different from the S III, moving from the S III to S 4 mostly felt like a spec bump. Having the S5 look significantly different would definitely boost sales. The problem we see with this is that none of Samsung's smartphones look significantly different from one another—especially to the average consumer. If Samsung is serious about making the S5 stand out, it would likely mark a brand new design language for the company.

Most rumors claim the Galaxy S5 will come with a 5.25-inch 2560×1440 display, which would align with the VP's comment about focusing on the display. Those specs seem to give the S5 an insanely high 560 PPI, but keep in mind that this display will most likely be an AMOLED with a "Diamond Pixel" Pentile layout (like the Note 3 and S 4), which only uses two subpixels per pixel instead of the usual three. If you look at "subpixels per inch," the supposed S5 display would be 1120 SPPI (560 PPI x 2 subpixels), which is still behind a Nexus 5 at 1320 SPPI (440 PPI x 3 subpixels). That's only a very rough comparison between screens of different subpixel counts, but the point is that Samsung's higher PPI count isn't completely unjustified. What is not defendable is that Samsung has flatly stated that it intends to bring about 860 PPI 4K displays to smartphones in 2015. The Oculus Rift people are probably very happy to hear that, but for smartphones, that's just crazy.

The very last part of Lee's quote states that Samsung will be focusing on the "feel" of the device. Whenever we get close to the release of a new Samsung phone, there are almost always rumors that the company will finally ditch its cheap-feeling plastic and switch to a more premium material, and those rumors always end up being wrong. While some might finally take this as confirmation of a metal Samsung phone, the VP said "feel of the cover" not "materials of the cover," which leaves the door open for some kind of treated or textured plastic, like that of the faux-leather on the Note 3. For several years running, the major complaints about Samsung's smartphones have been the ugly UI skin and the low-quality materials, so you would think the company would move toward addressing those issues.

Lee later mentioned that Samsung is looking at iris recognition, saying, “Many people are fanatical about iris recognition technology. We are studying the possibility but can’t really say whether we will have it or not on the S5.” There have also been rumors that Samsung will be matching Apple's Touch ID feature on the iPhone 5S with a fingerprint scanner of its own. The latest rumor on SamMobile claimed that the S5 would have a Windows-laptop-style swipe fingerprint reader, and that a total of eight fingers (not 10?!) could be registered. You would want to register so many fingers because swipes from different fingers could be configured to launch different apps. Both of these features seem to contradict the "back to basics" quote from the Samsung VP, but they definitely sound like something Samsung would come up with.

One of the stronger rumors surrounding the S5 is that Samsung will launch two versions of the phone, called the "Galaxy S5 Premium" and "Galaxy S5 Standard." Talk is all over the place with regard to the spec, material, and price difference between the two, but it seems like numerous unrelated sources are all claiming that Samsung will somehow be going the iPhone 5S/5C route.

Samsung loves button consistency across its products and has always kept the Menu, Home, and Back buttons in the same spot, even when Google deprecated the menu button in 2011. With Samsung's new tablets, though, the NotePro and TabPro, the company finally switched to a modern button layout, using Recent Apps, Home, and Back. It doesn't make much sense for Samsung to switch over just one product in its extensive lineup, so we believe the NotePro and TabPro signal a product-wide change for all future Android devices.

Samsung is also expected to show off a slew of other devices: the Galaxy Tab 4, a truckload of low-end devices for developing markets, and possibly the Galaxy Gear 2. The first Galaxy Gear smartwatch was a flop, with a reported "above 30 percent" return rate, and there was a recently available half-off fire sale at Best Buy. With poor reviews and a poor market reception, it makes sense that Samsung would want to take another swing at the wearables market before Apple and Google finalize their plans.

The other big question mark for Samsung at Mobile World Congress is what will happen to Tizen, its self-developed OS that some see as the company's eventual escape plan from Android. Some rumors claim that it will show up, some say it's delayed, and some say it's dead forever because of the Samsung/Google alliance.

HTC

This one is kind of cheating because HTC will not actually launch anything at Mobile World Congress (at least, we don't think it will), but HTC is readying a sequel to the HTC One. HTC is moving the One 2 (not the official name) well clear of the Galaxy S5 and the rest of the Mobile World Congress news tsunami with a press event on March 25. While it won't be at MWC, it's an extremely important phone, so we're covering it now anyway.

We've seen multiple images of an upcoming HTC device with two rear cameras. This isn't the first time HTC has done a dual-sensor rear camera—the HTC Evo 3D could take 3D images thanks to its dual 5MP sensors. These dual rear cameras aren't for 3D pictures though, the rumors say that, through some kind of software magic, HTC will combine the input from these two sensors to take a better quality 2D picture or perhaps enable Lytro-style post-shot refocusing. However, it's important to note that the above pictures only show some kind of HTC device. No one is really sure if that is the HTC One 2 or the One 2 Mini, which may also be in the works.

Judging by the picture, HTC seems to be going with on-screen buttons for the One 2, which fixes one of the worst design elements of the original One. For the original aluminum flagship, HTC eschewed the standard Android button layout of "Back," "Home," and "Recent" for "Back," a functionless HTC logo, and "Home." Removing a core button to make room for a logo was a ridiculous and kind of insulting design decision, and it looks like HTC will remedy that for the new version. The issue now is that, according to the leaked pictures, when HTC moved the buttons from the bezel to the screen, it didn't actually make the bezel any smaller. One of the implicit promises of on-screen buttons is a smaller overall phone and a better screen-to-bezel ratio. Without shrinking the bezel, HTC's on-screen buttons are just wasting screen space.

Ron Amadeo
Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. Emailron.amadeo@arstechnica.com//Twitter@RonAmadeo